Chapter 19 - Clover

CHAPTER 19 - CLOVER

E verything about Riggs has changed over the last few seconds. His eyes seem darker, the muscles in his jaw are clenching, and his shoulders are tense. "‘All's fair in love and war' is nothing but an excuse."

"I didn't mean it that way."

He lets out a long breath. "I know. But it's so gross. It means… well, that anything and everything goes when you're at war. And the whole world is at war. There's no peace, not anywhere. And that expression, at least to me, is just a way to reconcile the evil everyone's doing to one another."

I don't know what to say to that. I don't know this man. Not really. I've seen him in a few select circumstances. I understand he's dangerous. But this is something else. It's a very serious moment. Like he's explaining something deeply important to him.

All I can do is nod. "OK. I won't say that again."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to accuse you of anything. You don't know any better."

"But now I do. So I won't say that again."

He nods his head now, accepting my mea culpa .

"But Riggs, how do you know it was Collin who sold you out?"

"Hattie told me. She couldn't wait to tell me."

"But she must've figured out that you poisoned her so you could escape. Maybe she lied?"

"I thought of that. But my father admitted it as well. He was very proud of the fact that they got Collin Creed to give me up for a fat bonus."

I'm shaking my head as he's saying this. "I don't believe it."

"What's not to believe?"

"Maybe I don't know Collin these days, but he's loyal. I mean, the whole reason he became a killer instead of some college football star is because a man tried to kidnap his sister. You don't fuck with a man's sister. And he saved Lowyn from that monster, Ike Monroe."

"Monster, is he? I thought he was a pretty bottle of poison wrapped up in a shimmering satin bow?"

I make a face. "He's a frog. You're the prince. I was just fuckin' with ya."

Riggs laughs and those dark eyes go light again. "Anyway…"

"Anyway." I flop back onto the bed and look up at the ceiling. "Here's your last fantasy."

"Are we still playing?"

"Your fantasy is… the two of us packing up our shit and walking out of here. We go back through those tunnels, leave the mountain behind, get my car, and start over somewhere." I turn my head to look at him, meeting his critical gaze with a weighty one of my own. "Together. And we forget all about Collin Creed and Hattie Miller. We just start over."

"It would never work."

I ignore him and keep going. "We could drive south, maybe. Down into the Ozarks."

"We've got bases in the Ozarks, Clover."

"We could drive down to Texas, cross the border?—"

"We've got bases in Mexico, Clover."

"We could get on a boat?—"

"We've got bases all over the world, Clover. It'll never work. They would hunt me to the ends of the earth."

"Just forget about that for a moment and think about this. We… I dunno. Find a little village in Peru and get jobs making tortillas." He chuckles here, so I know I've got him. Not got him as in agreeing with me, but he's playing into my fantasy. "We settle in, learn Spanish—do they speak Spanish in Peru?"

"They do."

"So we'd learn Spanish and save our money so we could… open up a little bed-and-breakfast, maybe." I side-eye him. "I could plan weddings in Peru. Isn't that the place where llamas come from? Maybe llama weddings are a thing down there the way horseback weddings are here? That's kinda fun. But back to your fantasy. We'd settle in, sell llama weddings. I'd get pregnant and we'd have twins, of course. A boy and a girl." He chuckles again. "We'd name them… Sophia and Marco. Good Spanish names so they'd fit in. They'd grow up there, working in the llama wedding business. And we'd grow old." I side-eye him again. "Together. We'd have a nice, long, quiet life on the top of some Peruvian mountain. Now isn't that a nice fantasy?"

He wants to pull me back to reality, I can see it in his eyes. But then he sighs and decides to agree. "Yeah. It's a real nice fantasy."

"You're just saying that."

"No. I'm not. I swear, a Peruvian mountaintop has never sounded so attractive."

"But you're not serious, Riggs." He lets out an exhale that feels like surrender, so I point at him and make my voice stern. "Don't do that."

"Don't do what?"

"Give up! You can't give up! There's no giving up. If we decide we're getting out of here and starting over, then that's what we're gonna do."

"Clover, the very idea that we'd make it out of Trinity County on the outside is ludicrous. This is West Virginia. It's three hundred miles to DC."

"So?"

"Everything underground between here and there is military. There are so many access points, we wouldn't get more than fifty miles in any direction. The only reason we're still in this escape plan of mine is because we're in Ike's territory and he's possessive about it. If I tried to leave with you up top, we'd already be caught."

"Well, I don't think this plan is gonna work either. I think if we get on that train, we're gonna get busted anyway. It all feels hopeless right now and all I'm trying to do is make things a little brighter."

He throws his hands up and turns onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. "Fine. Your plan is great. I love it. Let's move to Peru."

Now I flop onto my back and stare at the ceiling. "Maybe I should go back home and pretend you never happened." Obviously, this is not up to me, so I'm only saying this to irritate him.

"You know what? Maybe you should."

I turn back over on my side. "How dare you!"

"How dare I what? I'm setting you free. You should go now." And then he actually throws the covers off and tries to get out of bed like this declaration of his is law.

I jump on his back, taking him by surprise, and then tackle him so he falls over on his side. He starts laughing right away, like my attack is a joke.

But I'm dead serious. I climb on top of him, place my hands flat on his chest, and lean down into his face, looking right into the wolfish eyes of his. And I say, "That is not happening. You are not sending me back!"

"You literally just said you wanted to leave."

"No! I said maybe! This is how women argue! I get angry and make threats, you come to your senses and agree with me!"

"That's not a thing."

My eyes go wide and I'm about to lose my shit when his hands suddenly come up and begin to fondle my breasts—which I now notice are hanging right in his face.

I had forgotten we were naked. But our ending position after our tussle brings it all front and center. Because he's getting hard underneath me and I'm beginning to wonder myself if maybe we should pause here for a little quickie.

So instead of going off again, I give in and stare down at him, ready to beg. "Please. Please , Riggs. Don't give up on this."

He pinches my nipples, rolling them between his fingers. But not in a rough way. He uses just enough pressure to tease me. "Should we keep fighting? Or should we find something better to do?"

I answer him by wiggling my bottom, teasing him back.

His smile is sweet, and genuine, and a little bit sad. But it all looks so good on him I can't feel anything other than desire.

I commit his face to memory. Wanting to hold on to this moment forever because who knows what's gonna happen next.

He slides his hands up my chest and then they slide around my neck so he can pull me down to him.

We kiss. Lingering in it for a little bit. Just enjoying how good it feels.

I lift my hips up, ready to put him inside me so I can forget about the walls closing in around us and just live in blissful ignorance for a bit longer.

My hand is wrapped around his thick, hard shaft and then the door bursts open and suddenly the room is filled with people.

I scream. Someone else screams too, but she says, "Get on your knees with your hands behind your back!"

And when I look up, I know who this woman is even though Riggs didn't mention a single distinguishing physical feature.

Hattie Miller is here.

And she is pissed.

Not only that, she's got four men with her. One of them grabs me by the hair, pulls me off of Riggs, and I crash to the floor. His boot finds my ribs and the next thing I know, I'm doubling over in pain as three other men take Riggs down. This isn't as efficient as my submission because Riggs—every buck-naked inch of him—is resisting pretty hard. He's yelling, telling the men to leave me alone, but his attention is on the wrong person because Hattie Miller comes up behind him with her rifle raised.

I yell, "Behind you!"

But it's too late. Hattie cracks him in the side of the head with the butt of her rifle and he falls over sideways, already unconscious before his head hits the floor.

Then Hattie Miller turns her gaze to me. Her lip is curled up in a savage sneer as she takes in my naked body. When her dark eyes meet mine, she huffs out the word, " Pathetic ."

She comes at me, and the next thing I know that rifle butt is hitting me too and everything goes black.